With it being Smart Grid Forums’ mission to champion the agenda for clean energy, it was only right and fitting that it took the sponsorship for Electrical Review’s Sustainable Project of the Year award for 2020. Here we learn a little more about the pressures faced within the smart utility sector, as well as why Smart Grid Forums has chosen to support our event (as they have done from day one), with 2020 set to be the company’s third consecutive sponsorship.
Smart Grid Forums is an independent conference producer specialising in the smart utility sector. Launched in 2011, the company’s mission is to drive the clean energy agenda by facilitating techno-commercial meetings and conferences where utility implementation leaders and technology innovators can come together to collaborate and cooperate on new ways of driving the clean energy agenda forward.
Smart Grid Forums is a group of engineers and environmental scientists who represent the voice of the utilities. Through their combination of investigative audience research, in-depth technical content, utility driven speaker selection, and well facilitated networking, they provide stimulating meetings and conferences where participants are encouraged to think deeply and laterally, open up fully and express their real-world issues. Attendees are also urged to challenge the technology innovators and the status quo, and become receptive to new partnerships and alliances that compound their efforts and drive their infrastructure development at the speed of the digital age.
Smart Grid Forums uncovers the facts, figures, issues and challenges, as well as addressing the emotive blocks and hurdles around participants’ perceptions of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, both on an individual and organisational level. With a focus firmly on the next 12 months, the company understands the pressures that smart utility teams face today and appreciates that these pressures are only set to intensify in the future. The starting point when shaping a new programme is always the question: what do participants need to do differently today to drive exponential results in the next 12 months?
Investigating the CIM market
One such conference is Smart Grid Forums’ forthcoming Common Information Model 2020. Supported by the IEC, this groundbreaking new forum provides a clear roadmap for utilities to gain investment and drive the practical implementation of the CIM standard across their wider infrastructure.
Participants at the event could be at the start of their CIM journey or have already integrated several systems, and they will be coming together with like-minded CIM advocates and pioneers who are determined to push the maturity, organisation, and practical application of the standard to its next level.
They will join CIM representatives from TSOs, DSOs, system suppliers and integrators who will not only address the implementation challenges currently impeding CIM, but also discuss new frameworks for procuring CIM-based tools and technologies that will enable them to drive down costs and deliver more tangible value to their organisations. This forum is not for the faint hearted. It is designed for those who want to challenge the status quo, address CIM’s greatest flaws, and move the needle on this important standard. It will be the most in-depth, inspirational, and innovative review of CIM yet.
Supporting smart utility excellence
Smart Grid Forums is delighted to sponsor the Electrical Review Excellence Awards 2020. Having been sponsors of this prestigious award ceremony since its inception in 2017, Smart Grid Forums is privileged to continue to demonstrate its commitment to the smart utility sector and support progress through the recognition of outstanding work.